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New, One-Hour Special To Highlight Career of Legendary HeavyweightEncore Re-Plays Continue Throughout March, April

LAS VEGAS, March 19, 2003…The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will premiere Ultimate Tank Abbott, a one-hour pay-per-view television special, starting at 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV, Dish Network, Bell ExpressVu and Viewers Choice Canada. The suggested retail price is $9.95.Ultimate Tank Abbott is a retrospective of the legendary UFC heavyweight’s career that includes some of the most devastating knockouts and action-packed fights in UFC history. Even more entertaining is the fact that the play-by-play and commentary of each fight is provided by Tank himself while he relaxes with friends at Jay Dee’s Bar and Restaurant in Huntington Beach, Calif. The action includes his impressive debut knockout of John Matua in just 21 seconds and his dismantling of Paul Varelans in 1:51 at UFC 6: Clash of the Titans; his epic battle with Oleg Taktarov as well as highlights and his own insight into fights with Dan Severn, Vitor Belfort, Sam Adkins, Hugo Duarte, Steve Jennum and all the others that created the Tank legend.
Encore re-plays will start immediately after the premiere on Dish Network and Bell ExpressVu and at 11:30 p.m. EST/8:30 p.m. on Viewers Choice Canada. Additional re-plays include: iN DEMAND, March 22, 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST, channel iN1; March 23, 1 a.m. EST/10 p.m. PST, iN2 and 1:30 a.m. EST/10:30 p.m. PST, iN1; March 24, 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST, iN2; March 26, 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST, iN1 and Midnight EST/9 p.m. PST, iN2; March 28, 9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST and Midnight EST/9 p.m. PST, iN1; March 29, 3:30 p.m. EST/12:30 p.m. PST, iN2, and March 30, 6:30 p.m. EST/3:30 p.m. PST, iN1 and 11 p.m. EST/8 p.m. PST, iN2.
DIRECTV re-plays will air on its All Day Ticket channel 196 on March 22-24, 26 and 31, and April 3, 7, 11, 15, 17, 19, and 20.
On Dish Network, the re-play schedule includes March 22, Midnight EST/9 p.m. PST and 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST; March 26, 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST, and March 28, All Day Ticket starting at 5 a.m. Dish Network also will announce a re-play schedule in April.
Additional Bell ExpressVu re-plays will air on March 24 at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST and March 31, 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST. Viewers Choice Canada re-plays will air on March 22/March 21 at 1 a.m. EST/10 p.m PST and on its All Day Ticket March 22 and March 27.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., is the world’s leading mixed martial arts sports association. Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, the UFC programs six live pay-per-view events yearly through cable and satellite providers. In addition to its U.S. distribution on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV, Dish Network, Bell ExpressVu and Viewers Choice Canada, UFC events are distributed internationally through British Sky Broadcasting, WOWOW, Inc. in Japan, Globosat in Brazil and Modern Sports and Entertainment in Scandinavia. UFC licenses video games for all major playing platforms through Crave Entertainment and TDK Mediaactive.
The UFC’s next PPV event will be UFC 42: Sudden Impact at 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST on Friday, April 25, live from AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami, Fla.

The city of Natal, located in the Northeasten part of Brazil, is simply astonishing, with beautiful beaches and plenty of great food, satisfying every visitor and attracting tourists from all corners of the map. In this amazing scenario Bitetti Combat Nordeste is about to hold its second edition showing clear signs of improvement from the first one, and literally attracting the attention of the whole city for the night of fights on this March 20th. It’s important to undestand that Natal is a small city, and unlike the biggest Brazilian centers such as Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and even Curitiba, there’s not much events happening at once in the city, therefore the entire place literally stops and goes crazy about NHB and Bitetti Combat, and that alone makes for a very interesting atmosphere on the event. This indeed was the case in the first edition of Bitetti Combat, last November, where around eith thousand people paid to attend at the event, this time things are looking even bigger, with a better card with more well known names and a real frenzy in the city.
This Wednesday, March 19th, the usual rules meeting, press conference and weigh-ins are going to be held at the nothing but great Piramide Palace Hotel, where the fighters and their crews, as well as the press, will be installed. On Thursday, March 20th at 9 PM Brazilian time the eight-fight fighting card will beging its action bringing local fighters to battle each other, but this time also bringing some well known names from the fighting world to battle against the local heroes. The fights will take place on the huge Machadinho Arena, a facility that can hold up to 15,000 people, and nothing less than 10,000 spectators, or even more, are being expected at the gates! Besides the fights the likely presence of UFC and PRIDE veteran Vitor Belfort and BJJ Black belt Amaury Bitetti as referees for the fights is also a major attraction to the local public, but for us all NHB fans the most important thing are the fights, and this time most surely won’t disapoint. Since some of the names are not known by the international public, FCF decided to do a small preview of the most important fights so you can know what to expect from this usually wild night of fights right at Brazil’s Northeast:

Carlos Indio vs. Tiago Pitbull: Carlos Indio has been making a name for himself lately in the Brazilian Northeast NHB circles. A BJJ purple belt with a lot of heart, quick hands, and an unorthodox Boxing style, Indio has been surprising a lot of tough opponents. At Bitetti Combat 1 Indio pulled an upset against Paulo Guerreiro, who is a Tiago Pitbull teammate, by breaking his nose badly in the beggining of the match with a straight punch. In his last outing Indio gave Northeast NHB star Rivanio Aranha a run for his money and despite being the underdog took him to a judges’ decision win in a tough fight at RN Vale Tudo [A minor league event also promoted by Conrado, who promotes Bitetti Combat too]. His best chance in this fight will be a ref stoppage and his fast hands, however he is facing probably the toughest and most skilled kid that the Northeast has to offer. Tiago Pitbull is really a talented kid. Despite being very young, 19 years old, Tiago already has Muay Thai, NHB, Full Contact and Boxing experience and owns probably the most impressive striking skills witnesses at Bitetti Combat 1, where he defeated Brazilian Top Team member and BJJ black belt Fabio Hollanda with little trouble. His biggest weapon is his striking skills, and he has the potential to fight abroad with the proper ground training. Since Indio already defeated his teammate, this fight probably has personal feelings for him, so look for him to keep it standing and work his way to a KO in this fight.

Rivanio Aranha vs. Claudionor Fontinelli: Rivanio Aranha is a famous fighter at Brazil’s Northeast. With a very aggressive style, reminiscent of "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva, considering the due proportions of course, of whom he is a confessed fan, Aranha has been tearing up competition in the minor Brazilian NHB events, and was also a winner at Bitetti Combat 1, where he defeated soundly Glauke Eugenio, a runner up at the BJJ worlds at the purple belt division. In his last appearance, at RN Vale Tudo, Aranha defeated Carlos Indio, but had to stuggle. The crowd will be at his side, but he will be facing probably the most experienced fighter he ever faced. Claudionor Fontinelli is a familiar face to most NHB hardcore fans in the world. A veteran of UCC, IVC and MECA, Fontinelli has fallen to the likes of Chute Boxe sensation Anderson Silva and Brazilian Top Team member Haroldo Bunn. He is reported to be training a lot of stand up with IVC veteran Artur Mariano, and the improvements have been satisfactory, however his ground game and takedown defense still needs some work, as his match at MECA 7 against Bunn showed. A important factor in this bout is that Claudionor left jail not too long ago, so this fight means a lot to him, but nobody knows for sure where his conditioning level is at now. Aranha surely won’t gas, and the crowd will go wild in his favor, but Fontinelli can take this one if he is in shape cause this is shaping up to be a standing up brawl!

Tibau vs. Fernando Terere: Tibau is also another Brazilian Northeast stand out who will be fighting in front of his hometown fans. Tibau is very young, but indeed experienced and trains Jiu-Jitsu at Kimura/Nova Uniao as well as some training with the Ruas Vale Tudo team in Rio de Janeiro, so he knows his game. At Bitetti Combat 1 he defeated Paulo Caruso’s student Paulo Boiko, however it wasn’t an impressive outing for Tibau, who is a well rounded fighter and will probably be relying on his stand up to defeat Terere. The kid knows this is the most important fight of his life, and the fight that can make him more famous, plus his fans and friends are sure about his win, we’ll have to wait and see… Fernando Terere is really a Jiu-Jitsu great. Coming from a very poor childhood Terere found in BJJ a change in his life and the opportunity to achieve everything he ever dreamed off. One of the most important things about this fighter is that success didn’t come up his head, as he once won a new car as a prize on a Jiu-Jitsu tournament and sold it to invest the money on a project to teach Jiu-Jitsu to poor kids for free, even providing them their own gi to train, and giving them the same opportunity he once had. Training for most of his life with the likes of Jiu-Jitsu Icons Fabio Gurgel and Ronaldo Jacare, Fernando’s Jiu-Jitsu credentials needs no introduction, and he has been preparing hard for NHB with "The Phenom" Vitor Belfort, MECA winner Luis Azeredo, among others. His stand up has been improving a lot and he is considering an international career in NHB, so he needs to go pass Tibau and he knows it. I feel he has what it takes to win this one, but he will need to be calm and work his game as well as he can.

Silmar Rodrigo vs. Johil de Oliveira: Silmar Rodrigo is another very experienced, despite realitevely uknown, fighter from the Brazilian Northeast. At Bitetti Combat 1 Silmar fought and defeated Brazilian Top Team member Alfaia, showing good stand up skills, decent takedown defense and more importantly amazing cardio. He is also a very calm fighter, who shows no expression of anger or fear in his face during the fight. To get a notion of Silmar’s experience, he already fought the likes of Wrestler Darrel Gohlar at WVC, so he is definitely used to pressure. His takedown defense may not be enough to resist Johil’s attempts and experience, but his best chance are on his cardio and punching combinations. Johil de Oliveira is a veteran and a true NHB legend. With memorable battles against Pele at IVC, and event fights at PRIDE against the likes of Nino "Elvis" Schembri and Carlos Newton, you won’t find a fighter more experienced than Johil on this card. Age isn’t exactly helping him, but he is in good shape an willing to take his career abroad again, therefore he knows he simply can’t afford a lost to Silmar at Bitetti Combat 1. A win can mean a shot at MECA and maybe even more, so Johil will probably come well prepared and work his ground and pound to a win on this one, to close the event in great style.

In the other four fights of the night some names also deserve a small run down, to show the nice level this event is bringing to the ring:Sergio Capoeira is very famous on the BJJ circles in the Northeast because of his aggressive and crazy style. He just made his NHB debut at RN Vale Tudo in great fashion with an easy win, and is serious about an NHB career. His opponent Paulo Guerreiro is a Tiago Pitbull teammate with great Muay Thai credentials and a lot of experience in events such as "Champions Night". He lost at Bitetti Combat 1 and needs this win badly.Wallace is one of the most intriguing attractions at the show. The man is training Jiu-Jitsu at Kimura/Nova Uniao, but he is also a Chute Boxe black belt from Rafael Cordeiro, despite the fact that he doesn’t train with Chute Boxe anymore, so his Muay Thai skills are impressive. He debuted and demolished his opponent at RN Vale Tudo, and he is being considered "The next big thing" out of the Brazilian NHB circles.Lucas Lopes is a MECA and Bitetti Combat veteran, with a lot of experience in small shows as well. At MECA 7 he had the unfair taks of facing againt Chute Boxe veteran Nilson de Castro, needless to say he lost. At Bitetti Combat 1 he faced Brazilian Top Team member Jorge Navalhada and lost a split decision in a very controversial fight, where he showed a lot of heart, so look for him to provide a good fight.

Here’s the complete card:

Sergio Capoeira vs. Paulo Guerreiro

Wallace vs. Gugao

Rivellino vs. Josenildo

Carlos Indio vs. Tiago Pitbull

Rivanio Aranha vs. Claudionor Fontinelli

Tibau vs. Fernando Terere

Lucas Lopes vs. Samurai

Silmar Rodrigo vs. Johil de Oliveira

FCF is arriving in Natal this Wednesday and will bring you every detail of this wild night of fights! Keep checking the web site and don’t miss it!

posted by Full Contact Fighter @ 8:00 pm

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